Forgive me for a moment’s fictional indulgence, but I can just imagine a production meeting over at American Jazz Classics’ HQ.

‘Hey, Blue Train has arrived in the Public Domain. Let’s issue that!’

‘Great. Why don’t we junk the iconic cover photo, replace it with an anachronistic one and add an unrelated session for a different label as a bonus?’

‘Yeah! That makes perfect sense. Next…’

Yes, here it is; the first great Coltrane album, his only solo effort for Blue Note, an early manifesto statement with a hand-picked cast and four original compositions that were to become jazz standards. Add to these one of the best Trane ballad solos of the era (‘I’m Old Fashioned’) and you have a classic in every way. It’s also a record which I can’t imagine many modern jazz fans don’t already own so one has to ask ‘why?’ about AJC’s decision to issue it yet again.

The additional album is Lush Life, a record full of beautiful playing and another marker of the leader’s summer 1957 post-junk musical epiphany, but typical of Prestige’s grab-bag approach to programming, having been assembled from three unrelated sessions. The title track is another milestone but you have to ask serious questions about who will buy this reissue. The music is timeless and deserving of every star you can give it. The concept and packaging, however, are unashamedly vulgar and opportunistic.